


Unfortunate Souls

by scandalsavage



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Dick is Prince Eric, Dubious Consent, Intersex, Jason is Ariel, M/M, The Little Mermaid AU, because obviously, kind of the movie and the fairy tale combined, unusual biology, with a mature spin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 19:54:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20917673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scandalsavage/pseuds/scandalsavage
Summary: Jason is not like most mer, aggressive and mistrustful of humans. He's not supposed to go near the surface and he's certainly not supposed to pull himself up against the side of a ship to get a better look a human celebrations. But he's fascinated by all things human and finds himself drawn to one of the fisheaters.His life changes drastically when he chooses to save a prince from drowning.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unfortunate Dive](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20931542) by [Airdanteine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airdanteine/pseuds/Airdanteine). 

> My Tumblr: [ScandalSavage Fanfic](https://scandalsavagefanfic.tumblr.com/)
> 
> My amazing artist, Airdanteine's, Tumblr: [Airsart](https://scandalsavagefanfic.tumblr.com/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to tag the funky biology in here but I think I covered it. See the end notes for spoilery clarification if that's something you're picky about.

Jason likes the stars.

He likes the sun too, of course. The way it warms his skin as he bobs on gentle waves, dozing in the middle of the ocean. But there isn’t much of a view unless there are clouds. And the clouds get boring quickly unless there are a lot of them which blocks out the heat and makes the waves choppy and rough more often than not.

But he always sneaks out on still, clear nights to watch the bright dots of light lazily make their way across the inky sky. He’s even made up names for some of the brightest ones, as well as some of the more notable clusters.

It’s also safer. In the daylight Jason wouldn’t be able to swim silently alongside a ship, like he was a moment ago, or pull himself up by the little rowboat, like he’s just done, to observe the humans in the throes of… celebration? It definitely looks like a party. A medley of loud, colorful bursts in the sky exploding with a chorus of pops and twinkling out, had been what caught his attention. The rainbow of explosions certainly seemed cheerful. And the people are all… bouncing around on their legs. He realizes as he watches that they’re dancing, moving weirdly but rhythmically to the beat of the admittedly pleasant music emitted from odd looking instruments. Some even have their… foot coverings off so that he can see their toes. Legs are interesting of course, some of the people dancing even have aesthetically pleasing ones, and feet too… all very fascinating. But crabs have legs. Clams have feet. Only thing Jason knows of that has toes are people.

Actually, Jason finds humans in general intriguing. His father tells him he’s obsessed and if he’s honest, he knows it’s true. He is completely captivated by them, much to Bruce’s dismay.

King Bruce took Jason in after his brooder was caught by fishers. Like Jason, and the rest of the realm, she wasn’t supposed to be close enough to the surface to get caught. He was just a guppy when she vanished, but he likes to think they enjoyed naming stars too.

He sighs, watching wistfully as the people dance. Bruce would blow a geyser if he knew where Jason was right now. He knows it’s wildly irresponsible to let his curiosity get the better of him like this. There is no excuse for hanging off the side of the ship watching the merrymaking through a drain on the side of the deck. He’s not in any real danger, though. On the off chance one of the humans looks over the railing and sees him, Jason can drop back into the water and disappear before they could even call out to their friends.

“Psst. Jay…”

Frowning, Jason glances down at Roy, catching a flash of his red and green tail and broad grin before turning back to the people. Bruce and Jason’s brothers all say that he and Roy could almost be broodmates. They wear their hair different lengths, Roy’s cropped short and Jason’s brushing the tops of his shoulders, but it’s almost the same shade of red (Jason’s leaning just a bit browner) and they both have blue eyes. Only Roy’s are a pretty pale sapphire and Jason’s edge more toward a sea green. Sometimes he thinks it would be easier, fitting in with is brothers, if he looked more like them with their black hair that matches Bruce’s, blood or no.

“Hey… You’re gonna get in a lot of trouble, man. We should head back.”

He’s right. They need to head back or Jason will miss morning training.

Sighing again, he takes one last longing look. What he wouldn’t give to… just stand.

That’s when his attention is captured, his breath stolen, by the appearance of a man. He’s breathtaking. His smile is wide and bright and easy. It crinkles his deep blue eyes and gives him matching dimples on either side of his mouth. His floppy black hair frames his face and flutters in the breeze.

Jason’s heart thuds loudly in his chest as the man moves closer, laughing with an older man who somehow manages to walk stiff and straight despite slightly shaky legs.

“You’re going to have to settle down soon, Master Dick. Your subjects are sympathetic, they want what is best for you, but your continued hesitation is beginning to worry them.”

“Oh come on, Alfred. You’re not still sore I didn’t marry the Princess of Tamarran, are you?” The beautiful man laughs, voice smooth as the ocean currents, warm as a summer breeze, “That was days ago. Tonight’s a whole new adventure.”

“Master Dick. You’re 28 today. You must consider the future of you kingdom.”

The pretty one, Dick, frowns and the laughter leaves his eyes. It makes Jason want to rip the stiff man to bits, get rid of the thing that made Dick sad.

“I know, Al. I will, I promise. It’s just… Kori was great but…” he trails off. The stiff man’s expression softens, and he raises a hand to rest on Dick’s shoulder.

“I don’t want you to settle for someone with whom you cannot be happy.”

Dick kicks at wooden deck, looking at his shoe. “That’s the thing. I could have probably been happy with Kori. It’s just… it’s just she’s not… the one, you know?”

“You are every bit the romantic your parents were, young man. But…”

They’ve moved to far away for Jason to hear the rest, but his gaze continues to follow them. Everything about this Dick has captivated him.

“Jay?”

With extreme difficulty, and keeping one eye Dick, Jason returns a small amount of his attention to his friend.

“I’ve never seen a human this close before,” he whispers down to the other Mer.

“You shouldn’t be seeing them this close now.”

“He’s very… handsome…”

Roy makes a face, scrunching his nose. “Sure. I guess, theoretically, there might be a few good-looking ones. You know, if you’re into… too many limbs.”

Slipping back into the water quietly, Jason raises his eyebrows at the other. “I think I might be.”

“Sucks for you, buddy,” Roy chuckles, punching him in the arm before diving. Jason follows and Roy continues the moment his head is under water. “That’s one thing I feel confident in saying you’re never gonna get.”

A rolling, thunderous noise punches through the relative silence of the sea moments before they’re knocked around by a forceful, under water wave.

Spinning back around, Jason sees a bright light above the water level, flickering and vibrant.

He moves toward the ship, halted by a strong grip on his wrist.

“Don’t. They’ll be in the water soon. Not only are you breaking like, all the rules, but they’ll definitely see you.”

“So what? Their nets are probably burning.”

The grip tightens when he tries to head back again.

“Nets aren’t the only thing that make them dangerous.”

Jason glares at him. Then he twists his arm, flipping over his own tail, and jerking up, easily breaking the hold. He smirks at the other mer, before shooting off toward the wreckage.

For all Roy’s complaining, he follows Jason.

A couple of the rowboats are in the water, filled with people. None of whom are Dick. The stiff man stands precariously on the bow of one, shouting the beautiful man’s name desperately while the crew tries to hold onto him to keep him from falling over.

Diving back into the darkness of the ocean, Jason looks around frantically. His eyes are made for this, seeing through the murky depths to navigate the seas.

He swims around for a few moments that feel like hours until finally, he finds the beautiful man. There’s a chunk of wreckage bound to his leg by a length of rope, dragging him further into the deep. Jason circles him a couple of times, purposefully bumping him with his tail once. The man doesn’t respond. His laughing eyes are closed, and his happy mouth hangs open. His head lolls.

Moving swiftly, Jason slices through the ropes with his razor-sharp claws, like they’re seaweed, letting the hunk of wood and metal sink to the ocean floor. He threads his arms under Dick’s, wraps them around his chest, and drags him to the surface.

After taking a moment to adjust his grip, Jason squeezes in and up on the man’s chest a couple times until he coughs up water and groans.

At Jason’s top speed they’re still several hours away from the mainland. The boats are… a day and a half or so.

Jason chews the inside of his cheek, tasting blood as his sharp teeth tear at the sensitive skin, then tightens his hold on the human.

“What are you going to do with him?” Roy asks, lying on his back gliding into Jason’s path.

“Depends. How fragile are humans?”

“I don’t think he’d make it to land. Besides,” Roy flips upright and fixes Jason with one of his rare serious looks, “You don’t want to go near land, Jay. They would definitely kill you. There’d be too many of them.”

Yeah, that is absolutely too great a risk. Bruce would kill him if he got himself snatched up by fishers in shallow water.

A large piece of floating wood catches his eye. Roy follows him when he swims toward it and deposits the human onto it.

The man groans again and both Jason and Roy duck low in the water when his eyes briefly flutter open. But Jason, so caught up in trying to memorize his face, moves just a little too slow. A shiver runs down his spine when their eyes meet for a heartbeat—and he swears Dick smiles dreamily at him—before Jason manages to disappear beneath the surface.

When they both come back up Roy cocks his head, staring at Dick. “I guess he’s attractive. Weak though. He wouldn’t be able to mark you up or pin you down.”

“So? I could mark him and pin him down.”

Roy snorts and Jason turns on him and snarls. If Roy honestly believes he couldn’t take a single, lone, human, it’ll be a bloody end to their friendship.

“I mean, I know you’re physically capable of doing that. But you’ve never taken the spoils of your victories. I always thought you weren’t interested in someone who couldn’t beat you. My mistake.”

Jason flicks his fin and his gils flare irritably. It’s not a mistake. Jason’s won plenty of fights. All his fights. He just wants one mer who can best him even just once. Is that really asking too much?

“This is all academic anyway, right? You know you’re never going to see him again. You can’t actually mate with a human. Like, not even just because your dad would kill you. Logistically speaking… it’s just not gonna work.”

Gripping the edges of the makeshift raft, Jason starts moving off in the direction the row boats were heading.

“I’m going to swim ahead. Put him in their path and make sure they find him.”

“Bruce is going to be so pissed you’re taking all these risks. To save a human.”

“Yeah, yeah. What’s he gonna do? Lock me up?” 

* * *

Slade waves his hand and the image of the two red-headed mer with a dark-haired human between them dissipates into the surrounding water as though it was never there. Then he summons Wintergreen. 

“Keep an eye on the oldest prince,” he orders when the old eel-mer arrives, “When the opportunity presents itself, as it undoubtedly will, bring him to me.”

This could be the opportunity he’s been waiting for. And if he plays this right, he may end up with a more than a couple new pets. 

* * *

Turns out locking him up is exactly what Bruce does. 

Jason puts the raft in the way of the rowboats, then swims a few miles away to keep an eye on Dick. He makes sure the crew find him, the stiff man seems especially relieved, then heads home well after the sun has gotten comfy in the sky.

He’d already been a decent way away from home when he found the ship. Then he’d followed it, then went further to save a human. It’s very late by the time he returns.

Bruce is out of his mind with worry.

“Where have you been?!” The sea king shouts at him the very moment he enters the castle, “When you were late for training, we thought you’d overslept or that you were out exploring a sunken ship. Tim, Damian, Cass, Roy… everyone looked all over for you!”

“Sorry,” Jason mutters. And he really is. He didn’t mean to worry them.

Sometimes he envies the solo mer. Having a pod just means there’s people to disappoint or hurt.

“Not good enough. Tell me exactly where you were.”

“Uh…” he hesitates. He doesn’t want to freak Bruce out even more. “I heard a rumor their was a ruin on the far side of the southern ridge so I—“

“No. Damian looked there. The truth, Jason. Don’t lie to me.”

Jason snaps his mouth shut. Trying to think of something quickly but coming up blank.

At his continued silence, Bruce turns to Roy. “Where did you find him? If you lie to me, I’ll send you back to Oliver within the hour.”

Roy’s eyes get wide, he and his sire are still on the outs, and his mouth opens.

“The surface, okay?” Jason cuts in before Roy can spill the whole story. At least, this way Bruce doesn’t have to know about Dick and the ship.

The sea king turns a dangerous shade of red. “How many times do I have to tell you—“

“It was night. And clear. I was fine. I’d have heard a ship coming and been gone before they got within sight.”

Beside him, Roy shifts uncomfortably. Bruce definitely notices.

“Damnit Jason. That’s not the point. There are rules. Laws. And they are there for a reason. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, it’s not you I don’t trust. It’s them.”

He knows he shouldn’t say it. Now wouldn’t be the time even if it wasn’t a well tread argument. But he can’t help himself.

“Maybe, if we tried to establish some kind of communi—“

“Artemis!” Bruce calls out, summoning the commander of their military forces and the mer responsible for the prince’s training. “Jason is under house arrest. Lock him in his room. Guards on every door and window.”

“Yes, majesty.”

“Follow him like a shark any time he leaves the palace.”

And she does.

Which is frustrating because usually they get along really well. But if he so much as glances up toward the surface, she gives a little growl. He’s finding it difficult to enjoy her company and tires of the constant judgement he feels. So, Jason spends the next few days cooped up inside trying to keep busy.

Alright, his lockup is more of a self-imposed imprisonment, but he still feels justified blaming Bruce.

In the end, it’s Jason’s own fault that Bruce finds out about his new human crush.

Damian sneaks up on him doodling in the sand and he isn’t quick enough to erase the legs and draw a tail before the little sea demon catches him. But his little brother just quirks a brow and swims away.

Tim finds him in the records chamber, measuring the distance from the palace to the land kingdom the people had been returning to and all Jason can think of as an excuse is that he’s bored before trying to cover by picking another spot at random and measuring that too.

But neither of those are as embarrassing or damning as when Cassandra comes across him flaring his pelvic and cloacal fins in a mirror, dorsal billowing out behind him, turning side to side to see what he’d look like if he were to ever declare intentions to mate.

Word of Jason’s odd behavior makes its way back to Bruce. And when no one knows which mer has captured Jason’s famously picky attentions, Bruce seeks out Roy.

In his friend’s defense, it takes another threat of sending him home to make him divulge the secret.

Jason knows something is off the way Bruce slithers into his room, face dark and chiseled in stone.

“Is it true?” He asks, ice cold and emotionless.

Jason gulps. When Bruce appears calm, is when he’s at his most angry and dangerous.

“Is what true?” He answers, pretending not to notice the drop in the water temperature. Hoping he’s just misread the mood.

Then he sees Roy lurking just beyond the doorway and his heart drops into his stomach.

“Did you rescue a human from drowning?”

Jason purses his lips and looks down at the whorls of glistening scarlet on his tail shift from nearly black to bright red as light shimmers across it.

“Jason.”

“He was going to die,” he mutters weakly. He is in so much trouble.

“A dead fish eater is one less that we have to worry about. Have you completely lost your mind? You could have been killed. And you are far more important.”

“I—”

“And Tim tells me you’re figuring the distance to a human kingdom, Cass tells me you’re flashing your fins in the mirror, Damian thought your idle doodling was just an extension of your obsession with walking but it’s not, is it? Please tell me you’re not foolish enough to try to find this human. That you’re not so lost in your own fantasies that you have forgotten the reality. That humans are dangerous.”

Anger courses through his veins, hot and indignant. Of course, he isn’t that fucking stupid. It’s just a fun fantasy, he knows the difference between the real world and his daydreams. But he is finding it increasingly difficult to hover here and take the insults.

“It’s time to get your head out of the clouds and back in the water where it belongs,” Bruce snaps, righteous fury fading into icy exasperation.

And that’s it, the seaweed that breaks the whale’s back. He can take Bruce telling him he’s stupid in anger. But trying to tell him what he is and isn’t allowed to think about? That’s crossing the line.

“You know what, B? Fuck you too,” he snarls, showing his sharp teeth to the king of the seas, an aggressive and challenging move before he snaps his mouth shut, clapping a hand over it, hating himself for getting so mad he threatened his sire.

As he flees out the window as fast as he can he thinks he hears Bruce call for the guards.

He almost cries. He’s ruined it. The best thing that had ever happened to him.

He challenged Bruce. He challenged his sire, his king.

He can never go home. He’ll have to leave the whole territory or live in fear of being found and forced to back up that challenge.

Even if he thought he could win, which he doesn’t, Jason would never. He refuses to kill the mer who took him in.

He’s not paying attention to where he’s going, just swims and swims, trying to put as much distance between himself and Bruce as possible, get out of the realm before things get worse.

The ocean is big place. Even in the more populated areas, the ‘bustling metropolises’ of the few mer kingdoms that exist, even in Bruce’s territory—the largest of all of them—you don’t just bump into other merfolk.

So, when Jason slams headlong into a large someone the moment he passes the border into the wild depths of the ocean, he expects it to be one of Artemis’ men and he growls a low warning.

Instead, a lean, willowy mer, body littered with the pale evidence of dozens of battles, old face weathered and scarred, watches him with piercing grey eyes that seem to know too much.

Jason eyes the long eel tail and swallows. Eel-mer are incredibly rare and impossibly difficult to fight. The electrical current they can generate can easily knock-out even a large shark-mer and is, more times than not, enough to kill.

This one’s tail alone is at least 15 feet long.

Jason won’t even be able to get close.

Before either he or the Eel get the chance to speak, Roy catches up. He must have been very determined in order to follow so closely.

“Jason! You shouldn’t just—holy shit!”

The Eel smiles. It’s… not as wicked looking as Jason was expecting it to be.

“I’m Wintergreen,” he says, bowing his head politely at Jason whose eyes narrow, “My master wishes to speak with you. He believes he can… help, with your current predicament.”

Jason cocks his head skeptically. He’s been swimming as fast as he can for a few hours now. It isn’t unusual for news to travel quickly under the sea. But this still seems… sudden.

“You sure you have the right mer, pal?” He asks.

“Oh, I think so. Jason.”

Roy makes a distrustful grunt next to him.

“And who exactly is your master?”

Wintergreen’s grin turns a little sharper. “Deathstroke.”

Jason scowls as Roy lets out a nervous laugh of disbelief and says, “That Octo-mer who used to try to challenge Bruce all the time? Why would Jason go near that guy?”

“Deathstroke—Slade—has traveled the vast expanse of the oceans, acquired many unique… skills—”

“Sorcery,” Roy spits like it’s a dirty word. Which, it kind of is. Sorcery is something the humans use. The merfolk are generally distrustful of anything associated with the fish eaters.

But Jason has never been afraid of humans the way he’s been told he should be.

“And if I go and don’t want to buy what Slade is selling?”

“Then you will be free to leave and try your hand at surviving the depths, of course,” Wintergreen says smoothly.

Roy snorts. “You don’t have to do anything in the depths, Jay. Bruce isn’t going to—”

“I challenged him, Roy,” Jason sighs, “Do you think Bruce became ruler of the largest territory in the seven seas by letting challenges go unanswered?”

“You’re his son—”

“That’s even worse! Theoretically I’m a viable option for his replacement. I can’t go back there.”

“Jason—”

“Alright, Wintergreen,” he says, abruptly cutting of any more of Roy’s objections, “I’ll hear your master out.”

“Wonderful. Follow me.”

Roy’s naïve optimism solidified it for him. He doesn’t really expect to last long in the wild and another kingdom is out of the question. The Bane and the al Ghul’s are out of the question. For all of Oliver’s issues with Bruce, they’re too close for that to be an option. He’s sure the Black Fins would accept him, but their king always makes Jason feel like he needs to scrub his skin with coral.

“Jason,” Roy tries one final time.

“This is the best bad option for the moment. I’ll see yo—I’ll be fine. You’ve been a good friend—”

“Wait. I’m coming with you,” Roy says like he should have known that.

“No, you’re not. If anyone found out you were meeting with Deathstroke… you’d be exiled too.”

“You’re not going alone.”

“Yes, I am,” Jason insists. Then, turning to the big electric eel, he says, “I won’t meet with your master if Roy’s there. Or if he’s harmed.”

Wintergreen’s lips curl in a dangerous smirk. “I like you, kid,” he says, moving between the two red-heads and glaring down at Roy.

After a moment, Roy’s shoulders sag. “This is a mistake.”

“It may be,” Jason acquiesces, turning to follow the Eel as he takes the comment as the victory it is and begins to lead the way. “But it doesn’t have to affect anyone other than me. That’s why you’re going home.”

With that, Jason turns his back on his friend and follows the deadly eel-mer into the depths of the ocean.

* * *

Jason is, for lack of a better phrase, out of his depth. 

He thought Wintergreen was big. But Slade’s tentacled appendages are longer than even the eel’s tail, inky black on the top, poisonous, deadly orange on the underside.

Not that Jason is paying attention to Slade’s underside.

He feels thoroughly dwarfed by both creatures. It is not a sensation he is used to, and he definitely doesn’t like it one little bit.

“I’m sorry,” he says, incredulously, positive he must have severely misunderstood the words the giant octo-mer just spoke, “What did you say?”

The guy is missing his right eye and in its place is a big beauti—ugly scar. On any other mer, it would be a weakness, a blind side, as it were. But Jason knows in his bones that it just makes this one more dangerous.

Slade’s shock-white hair is only a little shorter than Wintergreen’s and the way it moves across his face is definitely not attractive in the slightest. Nor are his solid, rippling muscles, or the other innumerable scars marking the strong torso.

“I’m not interested in playing games, boy,” the octo-mer rumbles like a hurricane, “I offered you a way out. Are you interested or not?”

In Jason’s admittedly limited experience, offers that sound too good to be true usually are.

“If you’re also uninterested in giving more details then yeah, I’m not biting,” Jason snips, making to swim to the exit of the cave the other mer lives in.

A deep, melodic laugh ripples over him on the water and he restrains a shiver.

“Alright, kid. I said I can give you legs. Make you human. Give you a chance to walk among the people,” Slade grins at him, “Isn’t that what you want?”

Jason eyes him suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”

“Other than the price of the magic, not much,” Slade says easily, “I get most my satisfaction from messing with your daddy. Giving you something he can’t and helping you evade him. But that’s not why I do this. Helping unfortunate souls is something of a calling.”

Yeah, Jason doesn’t entirely buy that. The ‘helping’ part. He fully believes Slade enjoys screwing over Bruce though.

“What’s the price of the magic?”

“Unfortunately, all magic is a bit of a trade. A deal, of sorts. There is a sacrifice for the spell, and there are terms that must be met in order for the magic to lock in and last.”

“And what, precisely, would that be for me?”

“See what I mean?” Wintergreen smirks from his post blocking the exit.

“I do,” Slade answers grin widening, “You’re a clever little fish, aren’t you?”

“Is it especially clever to want to know what you’re getting into before you get into it?”

Slade shrugs. “You would be surprised how many people sign without asking.”

There is a brief pause until Jason raises his eyebrows and prompts, “Well?”

“The spell will give you legs, but it will be painful to walk on them. Unfortunately, you won’t know how badly it will hurt until you’ve got them and even if I knew, you wouldn’t have any context to understand the implications. That’s the sacrifice. The cost.

“The terms are simpler. In order for the spell to become permanent—which will, incidentally, free you from the pain—you must marry your prince.”

Jason frowns. It doesn’t sound too bad. Pain is something all mer know how to handle, certainly better than fragile humans. He’s certain he can withstand whatever hurt may come from this. It’s the other thing he’s uncertain about. Mostly because…

“What does ‘marry’ mean?” Human customs are largely a mystery to mer, as mer customs are to humans. It’s not like the two species communicate.

“It’s a human thing,” Slade answers with another shrug, mischievous smirk pulling up one side of his lips, “When two of them want to mate, they marry.”

“So,” Jason says slowly, thinking everything through, “it’s just ‘coupling’?”

The octo-mer’s smirk widens into a full grin, putting sharp teeth on display. “Exactly.”

“And if it doesn’t happen?”

“If it doesn’t happen within a week, you revert to yourself, as you are now—”

That’s definitely not too bad. A week is more than enough time to court and mate a partner and even if he fails, he just ends up back where he is now, no worse for wear. Actually, that’s a lot lower stakes than Jason would expect from sorcery given how feared it is amongst the merfolk.

“—and, of course, you’d be mine,” Slade finishes.

Jason’s eyes snap back to the other mer’s face.

“Excuse me?”

“You would be bound to me,” he answers, as though it was obvious and unimportant, “When you return to the sea, you would return here.”

Jason swallows hard. “And what would that entail?”

With an effortless pulse of his eight limbs, Slade’s suddenly in his space, gripping his chin between thumb and forefinger, gazing down at him with hungry eyes.

“That would be entirely up to me. My whims may vary, but at the very least, I’d say you can expect the same treatment you’ll receive at the sealing of the agreement.”

“It’s not just a signature or, like, a verbal agreement?” he hates the way his voice cracks. He doesn’t need to fight Slade to know the octo-mer can easily pin him down and mark him up… no matter how difficult Jason may make it, ultimately Slade would win. And that makes him… feel things.

“There is a signature. Just to have something physical to refer to. But the actual spell requires… more.”

It’s not difficult to deduce what ‘more’ means when Jason can feel too many limbs slipping and sliding all over him, lightly caressing over his most sensitive areas of skin. One twines lightly around his throat, two more at each arm, another wraps his tail in strong hold, yet another is playing with his cloacal fin, brushing almost teasingly over the hidden slit in his scales.

He stares into Slade’s one eye, trying to will his body to stop reacting. It’s mer instinct to want powerful partners and mates. Letting Slade have him to seal the deal is… less than ideal. But he can live with it. He’s been waiting for a mer who can overpower him and there’s really no contest between him and Slade. Bruce, maybe, or Ra’s could give the octo-mer a hard time, but he knows there’s no way he can take on someone that big and skilled.

And he doubts the eel would just watch his master lose on the off chance Jason gets lucky.

But he’s not so sure about being owned if he fails. He supposes it’s not so different from being mated, especially if Slade plans on using him the way his current touching would imply, Jason thinks as the tip of one of his eight arms, the arm, prods exploratorily at his entrance. Though he doubts that a mated pair is the kind of power dynamics that would be at play in what would amount to his captivity.

Slade must notice his hesitation because the giant mer leans closer so that his lips brush against the sensitive skin just below Jason’s ears and just above his gills when he says, “It’s true, that this is a gamble. But going after something you want is always a risk.”

Jason groans when Slade’s tongue licks the length of his gill, making them flare wide. It takes all his willpower to stop his fins from following suit and announcing his intention to take what the octo-mer is offering.

“You have to ask yourself if the pros outweigh the cons,” continues Slade, mouthing at the next breathing slit on Jason’s throat. “Yes, if you fail, you’ll belong to me. But I am not an evil creature or a harsh master. Your life would not change all that much. You would still swim and hunt and train. But you would live here, answer to me instead of Bruce, attend to my… needs. The human prince is beautiful and easily swayed by beauty, your looks should be enough. You have plenty of time to meet the terms. And even if you don’t, you will have had an experience no other mer can claim. You will have satisfied that ache inside you to see the human world, to learn their culture, to walk. But if you do… if you do, you get to stay; stay with your prince and your precious people; stay on dry land; stay away from the sea king whom you’ve accidentally challenged.”

Bruce’s face flashes in his mind’s eye, twisted in rage as Jason fled. Followed by Dick’s deep blue eyes and small, dreamy smile.

He swallows hard once more and nods. Signs the contract Slade produces from the currents between them—after reading it thoroughly—as the restraining tentacles around his throat, arms, and tail tighten, and the one at his slit shoves in.

His cock slips out from the opening to make room for the invading length and it’s no use holding his fins in any longer. Jason can’t stop the pained cry that passes his lips as he’s forced open, for the first time, around the terrifyingly thick sexual arm of a huge octo-mer.

Deathstroke seizes the opportunity presented by Jason’s gaping mouth and sends another tentacled arm so deep into Jason’s throat he gags around it. Has to suck on it just to be able to work oxygen into his lungs through the one gill not strangled by the thick, fleshy appendage wrapped around his throat.

“You’ve never been mated before. Have you?” Slade rumbles into his ear before biting down while his hands travel over the flat plains of Jason’s abdomen, up to flick and twist his nipples.

Heat rises under Jason’s skin. His eyes dart to the eel, hovering in the corner with an amused smirk. If it’s going to get personal, Jason would rather be alone.

“No one good enough to take rights to you?”

“Don’t—don’t need to fight you t-to know you’d w-win,” Jason gasps as the thing inside him wriggles further up his passage. The arm just keeps getting wider and wider the deeper it goes; all the little suction nodules make it bumpy and uneven. His slit is forced wider around the ridges and contracts back down in the valleys over and over again. It’s sharp and frequent and has him choking as much as the tentacle around his throat.

The octo-mer chuckles. “Smart boy.”

It’s too much. He feels like he’s stretched to the brink, stuffed full—doesn’t think he can take anymore of the jolts as the bumps force their way in—but the inward march doesn’t cease. If anything, it gets more insistent.

There’s an uncomfortable, slightly painful poking as the appendage hits the back of his passage. And just as he relaxes, thinking that’s as far as it can go, a sudden stabbing sensation makes him tense and clench around the invasion as he tries to scream.

But Slade just grins and keeps pushing further into him, stretching his cunt wider and wider with every inch. To the point where Jason is positive the octo-mer will tear him.

Abruptly all the slick, black and orange arms around him tighten. Jason is going to have marks all over his body. He can feel the one inside him moving frantically against the walls of his womb, pressing at his belly.

It’s painful and overwhelming and possessive and everything he could ask for from a first time, even if it’s just a business deal.

Just as he feels like he’s about to finish (or pass out), Slade grunts and scorching liquid heat fills him up.

Then a searing pain spreads from his belly down his tail and he shrieks in agony. It feels like he’s being split in two. Like someone is slicing him in half with a rusty, serrated knife.

The last thing he sees before he blacks out is the eel’s grinning face as it scoops him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure the mer biology is fairly standard, one opening with everything inside. But when Jason gets transformed into a human he keeps all his bits, only they're like human versions would be. So he has a cock and balls that dangle and a cunt just beyond.


	2. Chapter 2

Dick is glad to be home.

Everything always looks brighter after a near-death experience. Not that he’s had more than… a couple.

This one really unsettled him though. Because as far as he knows, there’s no way he could have survived. His last memory is of struggling with a rope caught around his legs as debris dragged him into an early, watery grave.

Well. His last real memory. He keeps seeing flashes of bright blue eyes shot through with sea green and soft red hair in his dreams.

The colors fill his thoughts. More than once, his advisors have had to clear their throats to regain his attention.

Frantic movements from the royal guards walking ahead of him draw him back to this moment too. The guards behind him move forward, sand sucking at their boots.

He’d told them they should have taken them off.

From between the guards’ legs he can see a human form lying prone in the surf.

A hand lands on his shoulder. “It’s not safe, Prince Richard. You should wait here.”

“Nonsense,” he laughs, shrugging off the hand and hurrying forward. “There’s nowhere to hide for an ambush and it’s just one person.”

“Probably shipwrecked,” one of the other guards is saying as Dick approaches. “He’s lucky he’s still breathing.”

“Looks like he lost a fight with what must be the biggest fucking octopus in the ocean,” another mutters, awe overwhelming the hint of concern in his voice.

They make room for him so that Dick can get a look at the fortunate soul, feeling an immediate sense of kinship with another person spared a watery tomb.

Somehow the man has lost his clothes and a twinge of guilt pricks at Dick’s chest when his first thought is woah. The man in the sand is unconscious and extremely fit. He has shapely calves, thick muscular thighs, and abs that look like they’ve been carved from marble. Even the elegant spirals of purple sucker marks that wrap around his body are aesthetically pleasing. Like a tattoo.

Dick swallows hard as his eyes sweep over bared skin and tries not to notice that the man seems to be… well endowed, even while soft.

Then he reaches the face. The knitted brow seeming to suggest there is pain somewhere. The parted lips, puffing out soft breaths that flutter the red locks spread across his face.

Dick blinks down at him. That can’t possibly be a coincidence.

“Babs,” he says to one of the guards as he removes his cloak and throws it over the young man’s naked form. “Run ahead. Tell Alfred to call for the physician. The rest of you, bring him with us.”

* * *

Jason wakes up in something soft and decidedly… dry.

It takes a moment to orient himself, to shake the fog of sleep over his mind and remember.

The deal. He made a deal with a sorcerer for legs and a chance with a human. A chance to be a part of their world. A chance for a once in a lifetime experience.

There’s an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. He is less sure about the decision in the light of day, after rest has let the churning emotions settle.

He’s in a large, opulent room full of furniture he’s mostly familiar with (either because they use similar pieces or he's seen enough of them in sunken ships). It’s interesting to see the flames flickering on the melting sticks carefully set into their gold or silver stands.

The only time he’s ever really seen fire before is once or twice on a burning ship and of course the magma that flows from the vents in the ocean ridges. But it isn’t really the same thing.

Shifting to push the soft, warm fabric off the top of him brings a cry of agony to his lips when he tries to swing his legs over the side of the bed. It’s a sharp stabbing, burning pain, like when another mer gets their teeth or talons in good and rips out a chunk of meat.

Jason takes deep, steadying breaths through his nose, eyes squeezed shut, trying to breathe through it, waiting for it to subside. But it doesn’t. It lingers, a steady, torturous ache.

It hurts. Badly. Just like Slade promised. But… it’s manageable.

“Oh good, you’ve woken,” a prim voice interjects into the silence of the room.

Jason recoils in surprise and sucks in a sharp inhale when renewed pain sears up his new limbs. Great. It’s worse when they move. Not only does he have to learn how to walk, it’ll be excruciating when he does.

“Apologies,” the man Jason recognizes as Alfred says with an apologetic smile, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s… alright,” Jason replies tentatively. His voice comes out hoarse and cracking and the use of his vocal cords is yet another ache. That’s the last time he lets someone choke him. “I just… I just don’t know where I am…”

Best to stick mostly to the truth where possible. He’s going to have to do a lot of lying and he doesn’t want to fumble things up.

“This is the kingdom of Haley,” the old man says kindly, if well-rehearsed, “ruled by his royal highness, Prince Richard. And you are a guest in his home."

He doesn’t remember much. Other than Slade finishing inside him just as a blinding pain ripped him in half. Knows it must have caused him to black out. He didn’t expect the sorcerer to drop him so near to where he needed to be. So close that the servant found him.

A terrifying thought strikes him like lightning. “How long have I been unconscious?”

He knows his eyes are wide and he sounds too frantic, but the old servant just raises his brows at the outburst.

“Only a few hours since the Prince and his retinue discovered you on the beach. I can not speak to the time before then, but you were not especially dehydrated when you arrived so it could not have been too long lying in the salty water.”

Sighing in relief, Jason lets the tension out of his shoulders. He doesn’t think he’ll need the full week to mate—to marry (he must keep the terminology straight in his head so that he doesn’t draw their suspicion) the prince but, as his father says, more time is always better than less.

A different kind of ache throbs in his heart at the thought of Bruce. But Jason stubbornly pushes it aside. Same as he’s doing to the much harder to ignore pain in the legs.

He can’t believe he has actual legs.

“I am his majesty’s Chamberlain. My name is Alfred, and you may call me by it,” the old man says, not moving out of the doorway. “The servants are bringing you a bath so that you may scrub off the smell of salt and fish. Not knowing where you come from or your customs, we did not want to impose upon your privacy while you were unconscious.”

Heat creeps up under Jason’s unusually warm skin. “Uh, thank you.”

Alfred shuffles out of the way for several servants carrying a large… bowl between them and another several carrying multiple buckets of steaming water.

“Do you require someone to wash you?”

Jason is not entirely sure what is expected from ‘washing’ but since they didn’t want to do it to him while he was unconscious and that what he does know is that he needs to ‘scrub off the smell of salt and fish’, he’s fairly certain he doesn’t want help.

“No, I can manage, Al. Thank you.”

The Chamberlain raises a single brow at the shortened form of his name.

“As you wish,” he says, waving yet another person to the threshold. “This is Captain Gordan, the head of the Prince’s personal guard. She’ll will be outside this door. Notify her when you’ve finished dressing and she will escort you to the dinning hall. The prince is quite eager to speak with you.”

Those words set Jason’s heart fluttering.

When they’ve gone, Jason carefully sets his feet on the floor with a hiss and cautiously stands.

His knees buckle immediately and just manages to catch himself on the bed before he crashes into the floor.

It takes several long, agonizing minutes to reach the steaming pool of water. But the second he steps in, the pain eases a little.

Jason sighs and relaxing into the heat. He’s never been in water this warm and fresh.

On the pedestal to his right is a sponge and a white bar of… something. After some experimentation the bar starts to make bubbles in the water when he rubs it in his hands.

Putting two and two together, he starts to scrub the suds into his skin with the sponge, pointedly ignoring the sucker marks. And that feels really good too.

He stays until the water starts to get lukewarm and a draft makes him shiver. Then he dries off, dresses in the clothes provided—very soft, rich fabrics in black and red—and pokes his head out the door.

“You can’t go down with your hair like that,” the guard says, nudging him back into the room and going straight the silver item with spikes that he couldn’t figure out.

When he hesitates, she huffs and turns him around before gently combing the bristly bits through his shoulder length mane. It almost lulls him to sleep; gives his scalp that pleasant goose-bump feeling.

“I’d plait it for you,” Gordon says with a mischievous smirk, “but it looks nice down. And he has a thing for red.”

She winks at him and then spins on her heel, striding from the room.

Jason winces as he hurries after her on unfamiliar limbs.

* * *

The castle is overwhelmingly big and lavish. Jason expects the dining hall to be the same and he’s not disappointed. Everything is so tall even though the humans can’t swim or fly up to the tops.

However, the guard ushers him into a smaller, more intimate antechamber.

The man in the room gets quickly to his feet. A broad smile stretches across Dick’s attractive face to show bright white, blunt teeth.

Jason self-consciously drags his tongue across his own teeth, double checking the sharp fangs he has as a mer have been replaced with the flat human versions.

His own smile is a little more nervous. He’s never interacted with a real human before. Doesn’t know anything about their daily lives.

This could go very badly.

“I’m Dick,” he says cheerfully, grin spreading ear-to-ear, “Alfred’s going to insist you call me ‘prince‘ or ‘your highness’ but please don’t.”

He waves a hand to indicate the seat across from him adding, “What’s your name?”

“Jason,” he mumbles, distracted as a servant appears and pours various liquids into various cups while another scoops things out of silver trays and places them on his plate.

The water is easily recognizable. But everything else? The orange liquid in the short clear glass; the steamy brown liquid in the delicate looking opaque cup with pretty geometric patterns painted on it; literally everything they put on his plate… none of it comes from the sea.

“Is everything alright?” Dick asks after Jason finds himself overwhelmed and gulps loudly.

He’d picked up the tined instrument when Dick had and tentatively poked at the scoop of lumpy yellow… mush.

“I just… I don’t remember much,” he lies. “None of this is familiar.”

“Oh. Well, the yellow stuff you’re poking at is scrambled eggs and—“

Jason practically flings his little silver trident at the table with his surprise and disgust. The mer eat a lot of things of course. But they call the humans ‘fisheaters’ as an insult. Mer prefer the bigger, harder to hunt and kill kind of prey that humans show very little aptitude for catching.

So Jason knows the humans like the easy pickings of the smaller fish that swim in large pods. But eggs? A mer would never stoop so low.

Maybe Bruce was right. Maybe the humans are monsters.

“You… don’t like eggs, I take it?” Dick responds slowly, staring at the abandoned utensil with raised brows and slightly upturned lips.

Hunting grown prey is one thing. Every animal—human, mer, shark, whatever— needs to eat. But how can humans justify eating the eggs of any creature? How can they even look at their own nests?

“The unborn young of any creature is sacred,” Jason says, trying to remain calm. This was definitely a mistake. The sinking realization that he bartered his freedom for several hours on land makes him feel young and foolish. He feels his cheeks get warm with shame.

“Oh… well, we keep the chickens specifically for the eggs so they’re not fertilized or anything. No unborn young in them.”

That’s… better, Jason thinks. Still kind of odd. Still very gross. But at least it’s not… well, at least they’re not eating eggs.

He very much wants to ask what a chicken is but he knows in his bones that will be a weird question.

“The long brown strips are bacon, if your opposition is with eggs and not meat in general. There’s roasted tomatoes, rosemary toast, pancakes. This is a bowl of assorted fruits. Syrup for the pancakes, but I put it on pretty much everything.” Dick points at everything as he goes and smiles mischievously as he makes the last remark.

It spreads to his eyes and Jason finds himself distracted again. This time by how he just sinks into the little oceans of Dick’s eyes.

Jason eats a little bit of everything (except the eggs), marveling at the different flavors and how warm it all is. When Dick takes a sip of the orange stuff, Jason tries it too. Then chugs the whole cup.

Since he’s so unfamiliar with everything around him, he tries to subtly copy what Dick does. He uses the same silverware for the same dishes.

But the way Dick watches him with that knowing little smile, Jason doesn’t think he’s being as subtle as he’d like.

* * *

Dick makes idle conversation as they eat, trying to pretend he doesn’t notice the way Jason watches his every move for cues. It’s clear the red-head doesn’t remember anything.

Or that he doesn’t _know_ anything.

The prince does not believe in grand coincidences. So he has his suspicions.

He can’t tell if Jason is usually this shy and quiet or if it’s just because he’s in uncharted waters.

Either way, even though Dick resolves to keep an eye on Jason, he thinks it’s adorable.

After breakfast and over the next several days, Dick finds himself falling harder and harder as he shows the weird but cute stray around his kingdom.

Well, the city anyway. Dick just returned from a long trip abroad. He can’t take the time to go too far for too long.

Jason’s awe and amazement at everything is utterly endearing. Dick takes him to his favorite place, the circus his parents built in the heart of the city. While he seems particularly entranced by the acrobats and fire-eaters, the kid’s eyes get big as saucers when he meets Zitka.

Dick doesn’t think the younger man has ever even seen a dog before, let alone the elephant.

He winces when they give him a boost, something Dick has noticed Jason does a lot when he moves his legs suddenly or into a more extreme position. But it’s brief. And Jason’s laugh rings like sweet music under the big top as he rides.

It’s too much. Warmth blooms under Dick’s skin as he watches Jason’s expression shift from uncertain and timid, to surprised and excited, and finally splitting his lips in a wide, contagious grin.

He’s still giggling when he climbs off Zitka’s back, hiding his little hiss of pain in a breathy chuckle as Dick helps him down.

Maybe it’s that. Or maybe it’s the rosy flush on his cheeks, or the uninhibited happiness in his eyes.

All he knows is that he doesn’t really think about it before he’s slipping one arm around Jason’s waist, resting his hand in the small of his back, cupping his face with the other and softly kissing him.

The ring goes quiet and Jason freezes for three seconds before all his muscles relax and he opens his mouth, letting in Dick’s tongue.

When Dick pulls away, Jason’s cheeks aren’t just pretty pink blush from laughing but full scarlet. The younger man looks at him for a moment, smiles shyly, then looks away, rubbing at his neck.

They don’t have much time to wash up and redress for the small, state dinner planned for the evening. It’s just a dozen or so of crown’s most loyal and loved lords and their spouses so the stakes are low. Jason has met most of them individually over the last couple of days anyway, but this will be his first time in a larger group.

Since everyone invited are quite close, Dick likes to keep the event more informal. Servers move among the crowd with drink and food, a band and dance floor function as the centerpiece.

The party is in full swing when Jason pokes his head in, tentatively searching the room. Dick’s attention snaps to him immediately, like he can sense his presence suddenly among them. The sentence he’s in the middle of drags out and cuts off. He’s vaguely aware of his companions giving each other knowing smiles before dispersing to mingle.

Jason fidgets in his pale green doublet and grey breeches as if it’s his first time in formal wear. Which, Dick has the sneaking suspicion is true.

The longer he lingers on the edge of the room the more uncomfortable he looks. Like a fish out of water.

Dick giggles at his own joke and makes his way over to where Jason hovers by the exit, looking like he’s one “hello” away from bolting.

“You look very handsome,” Dick hums when he reaches the other man’s side, knowing before it happens that the words will bring that cute color to Jason’s cheeks. “The doublet brings out the little bursts of green in your eyes.”

Which is, more than anything else, the reason Dick’s convinced Jason isn’t being entirely truthful about himself. He may have been half dead at the time but those eyes are burned into his memory.

“Would you dance with me?” Dick asks suddenly, overcome by a whim.

Jason blinks at him for a moment. Then looks down to his shoes.

“I… don’t know how.”

Smiling, Dick threads his fingers through Jason’s and tugs him around the entrance to the ballroom, past the dimly lit hallway, to the darkened corridor that leads up to the bedrooms, lit only by the full moon pouring through the windows.

The music is muffled by the walls, but they can still make it out. Jason’s face looks several shades darker in the paleness of the moonlight when Dick places the younger man’s hand on his shoulder and snakes an arm around Jason’s waist. He’s definitely blushing harder than ever.

“I’ll teach you,” he says smoothly, taking a small step inward. “It’s not that hard. You step back when I step forward, and vice versa.”

For the first couple of minutes, Jason focuses on his feet, staring down the wide gap between them. But as they sway in the privacy of the hall, Jason’s attention slowly creeps up. Their bodies slowly creep closer. Until Dick puts Jason’s other hand on his shoulder so that he can wrap both around the younger man’s waist.

It’s insane, Dick thinks as Jason’s gaze finds his and their eyes lock onto each other, the feelings he has for this person after only six short days. Even knowing Jason isn’t being completely honest with him doesn’t change anything. If his suspicions turn out to be true, it just makes those feelings more intense.

Jason’s breathing gets quicker, chest heaving, when Dick leans close so his lips can brush against Jason’s as he mutters, “May I?”

Swallowing, Jason nods. Allows Dick back him up against a wall, tuck a stray strand of auburn hair behind his ear, and kiss him slow and deep.

* * *

Jason has been having so much fun he keeps forgetting he’s on a deadline. Over the last few days, it just hasn’t seemed as important as Dick’s smile, his laugh, the way both light up his eyes. Jason has never felt like he’s drowning before, but he thinks the way those deep oceans steal his breath is probably pretty close.

It all comes slamming back to the forefront of his mind when Dick pushes him up against the wall.

Still, despite Jason’s growing desperation and need, the heat building steadily in his gut; the odd wet sensation between his legs as well as his quickly growing erection—it’s Dick who makes the move.

His hands slide down Jason’s body and work at the laces to his breeches.

“We can stop any time you want,” Dick mutters into his ear before sucking on the lobe.

Jason answers that absurd notion with moan as he drops his head back against the wall to give Dick more room to nip at his throat and a pleading thrust of his hips.

The prince chuckles. Slips his hand in when the laces are loose enough.

Jason’s still not used to having his… parts all out in the open. When Dick’s cool fingers brush over his hot, aching cock, Jason almost screams with the need for more.

But then Dick’s hand dips lower, tugs lightly on the dangling sack of thin sensitive skin that Jason isn’t used to at all because he’s never had anything remotely similar, and Jason chokes on his own saliva. He pushes his hips into Dick again, even more desperately.

The fingers slip back even further with the movement. To where Jason needs them. They slip between the lips of his cunt and catch on his entrance.

Jason gasps.

Dick does too.

Then the prince snaps his hand back.

“What… what is…”

It’s difficult to focus now that he’s all riled up. Jason blinks, trying to clear the lusty haze from his mind to concentrate on Dick and the sudden lack of touch.

“Did—did I do something wrong?” He breathes. Gods, he hopes not.

Dick is looking at him, brows furrowed and mouth hanging slightly open.

“No,” he says, “It’s just... you have… you have… more parts than, uh, most men.”

Jason wracks his brain, going back the 20 seconds to what could have surprised Dick.

All the blood leaves his lower body to make his cheeks burn. He can still feel the hard press of the Prince’s cock against his leg. So there’s only one thing that could have caught him off-guard.

“You—you don’t have…”

“No,” Dick answer just as his surprised frown starts to quirk up into a mischievous smirk. “Human men usually just have the…” He finishes the statement with a roll of his hips, rubbing his erection into Jason’s thigh to make his point.

Jason gulps. “Hu—human? I’m—”

The rest of his lie is swallowed by the prince’s mouth on his; warm, wet tongue licking into his mouth with slow, deliberate strokes.

Two hands cup his face, holding him as the thumbs caress across his cheekbones. Then Dick pulls back, just enough to speak, lips still brushing against each other.

“I’ve… had my suspicions. But it doesn’t matter what you are. You don’t have to tell me unless you want to but I don’t want you to worry about it when and if you decide to tell me the truth. I don’t want you to have to lie to me anymore.”

Peeling his eyes open is hard but so worth the effort. Dick’s dark blue gaze is firmly enraptured, his features soft, relaxed, and adoring.

Jason has never been in love before. He loves his brothers, his sister, his… Bruce. But in love, especially the way humans tend to use the term, is a foreign concept.

So he doesn’t really know why his chest flutters every time Dick’s eyes catch on his own, or why his stomach rolls in an uncomfortably-pleasant tickling way every time their hands or legs brush against each other. And he really doesn’t understand why his heart jumps into his throat with the prince’s words.

What he does know, is that when his hands grab hold of Dick’s pale blue shirt and his lips latch on to Dick’s, he feels like this is right. Like he and Dick can work. Like maybe this wasn’t stupid idea. Maybe this wasn’t a mistake.

Maybe he won’t end up a slave to an admittedly attractive but violent octo-mer.

Maybe, with Jason’s connection to Bruce (and now that he’s no longer a threatening challenger), maybe the humans and mer can actually… learn about each other.

He’s getting a little ahead of himself, he thinks as Dick grins, takes him by the hand, and leads him up the stairs to the prince’s bedchamber. But a happily ever after looms enticingly in front of him and he can’t help but reach for it.

* * *

Making love to Jason is… a singular experience.

For one, Dick has been with men and women before, even occasionally at the same time. But never one person who possessed… all the options. Dick doesn’t know where to focus his attention. Every time he starts on one, he gets distracted by the other.

It’s pure luck that his indecision works in his favor. It plays like teasing across Jason’s flushed, overheated skin, and the one-time mer (Dick is sure of that now) just gets increasingly sensitive. To the point where Dick blows a breath of cool air across one of Jason’s nipples and the younger man cries out, jerking hard beneath him, and Dick thinks the poor kid nearly comes right there.

More importantly though, he’s never felt this way about someone before.

It’s true that Prince Richard is quick to love. He’s always had an emotional investment in the people he brings to his bed. Caring deeply for others comes naturally and easily to him.

But this is different. He feels… comfortable with Jason in a way he’s never quite managed with others before. It’s ridiculous because he’s only known the ‘man’ for less than a week but everything Jason says and does is so eager and sincere in a reserved, cautiously aloof kind of way that doesn’t really make sense but is so endearing to Dick that he just can’t get the other man out of his head.

He feels like he knows Jason better than many of the people he’s spent his whole life around. Dick knows he’s well-loved, amongst the people and the nobles, but the court is still filled with politicians who seek to influence him. They watch their words and actions with careful deliberation. Jason speaks so openly. He says want he’s thinking, sometimes sarcastically, but always honestly.

Dick watches him sleep. He’s so peaceful, none of the little winces of pain that he tries to hide when they’re out and about. The rise and fall of his chest is slow and rhythmic. There’s a thin lock of auburn hair that flutters when he breathes and Dick wants to tuck it back behind his ear but doesn’t want to wake him.

A soft, almost inaudible knock taps against the wooden door to the prince’s room before Alfred pops his head in with an apologetic smile.

“Apologies for interrupting, Master Richard,” he whispers, formal as ever. “There is a man in the receiving room who requests an audience. He says it is quite urgent.”

Groaning quietly, Dick takes one last look at his sleeping companion. He had wanted to be here when Jason woke. Wanted to stay snuggled in the warm bed with that warm body next to him for another couple of hours.

But duty calls. So he scribbles a note for Jason and dresses silently.

In his kingdom, there is not much difference between a Prince and a King except that a King is married and a Prince is still available. Dick has been running Haley and the territory of Bludhaven since his parents died 6 years ago in a shipwreck. He gives a lot of the credit to Alfred’s guidance even though the old man will never really let him acknowledge the service.

“Alfred?” Dick asks as they make their way down the corridors to the more public spaces of the palace.

“Yes, Master Richard?”

Dick chews on his lip for a second. “Is it… crucial that I marry someone with a kingdom of their own?”

To the Chamberlain’s credit, he doesn’t even glance up at Dick. Just keeps walking, face impassive. “It would be wise to use your wedding to make allies of other kingdoms.”

Dick’s heart sinks into his stomach. He knows that of course. But if Jason is a mer, maybe that could—

“That said,” Alfred continues, “You are well-loved, not just by your people, but by the rulers of nations abroad. You have made plenty of allies on your own merit and I imagine those relationships will be maintained even more peacefully should you decide to not show favoritism and choose a partner with no ties to any… earthen kingdom.”

That pulls Dick up short, mouth dropping open even as he grins. Alfred takes a couple extra steps then turns to look back at him.

“You devil,” Dick accuses, “You know. How do you know?”

“I’m afraid the poor boy was quite nude when you and your guard delivered him. And I am much more well-traveled than you might know. He is not the first mer to walk amongst humans and if you were to wish to visit his home you would not be the first human to swim amongst his people. Though you both would perhaps, be the first to survive the experience.”

Frowning, Dick starts walking again. “I’ll throw anyone who tries to hurt him in the deepest, darkest dungeon.”

“And from what I’ve seen, I believe he would shred anyone who tries to harm you into bloody ribbons.”

His frown turns into a scowl even as he feels a tingle of pleasure at the thought that Jason would be so possessive.

They walk in silence for a few minutes before Dick can’t take it anymore. He’s positive Alfred doing this on purpose.

“So…”

“So I shall dust off the wedding plans. Just in case you need them.”

Dick grins and kisses Alfred’s forehead, ignoring the faux scandalized look on the Chamberlain’s face, and pushes through the door to the receiving room happier than he’s been in a long time.

The man on the other side looks quite a lot like Jason, only with dark hair, shot through with a bit of white at the fringe. The resemblance is uncanny enough that Dick briefly wonders if Jason has a brother.

Then his eyes meet the cold, icy grey of the stranger’s and the last thing Dick thinks before the world goes fuzzy and blank is that he’s in a lot of trouble.

* * *

It’s a little disappointing to wake up to an empty bed. But the note on Dick’s pillow makes Jason grin and his stomach do those weird little flips.

He doesn’t really want to be caught in the same clothes he wore the night before. A big deal was made about the fact they’re fancier than his everyday attire and he may not be familiar with human social customs but he has a feeling it would be some kind of faux pas.

But when he leaps out of the bed, he immediately crumples to the floor. Pain sears up his legs, protesting, as they always have, an abrupt or drastic change of position.

Jason stares at them as though they’ve betrayed him. Then he rifles through his memory for the exact wording of his contract.

The pain is supposed to go away when the contract is filled; once he mates with Dick.

A lump forms in his throat and his mouth goes dry. Suddenly he can’t breathe.

Not mate. _Marry_.

Jason shivers, a chill rolling down his spine. Slade tricked him. He’s positive.

“Master Jason, are you awake?” Alfred’s voice sounds worried as he knocks on the door to the prince’s room before coming in without waiting for an answer.

The Chamberlain sees him lying on the floor and hurries over to help him up. “What happened?”

“I… fell. My legs… they still hurt,” Jason answers, still not quite understanding. He’d made sure; double-checked to be positive that Slade couldn’t trick him.

“Alfred,” he asks quietly, “what does ‘marry’ mean?”

It’s hard to look up and meet the old man’s eyes. It feels like an embarrassing question, even if he’s not sure why. But when he does he’s met with a soft, knowing expression.

“Were those the terms of your contract? Marry the Prince, keep your legs?”

Jason’s gaze drops back to his toes and he nods. Doesn’t even question how Alfred can know. He seems like the type to know pretty much everything. “I checked. Before I agreed. But… he must’ve… picked his words very carefully.”

“Marriage is a legal binding between two people, usually accompanied by a large celebration. It is… much like mating for your people. But also quite different. You don’t really have an equivalent in your culture.”

Jason feels his heart sink. That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that can just be thrown together haphazardly at the last minute. There’s an unfamiliar wet sensation in his eyes so he wipes at it.

“How long do you have?” Alfred asks gently.

“Today,” he mutters, and it sounds miserable and pathetic, even to his own ears.

Alfred hums. “Perhaps all is not lost.”

Jason’s head snaps back to him, giving his undivided attention.

“A page informed me earlier that a man had come on urgent business with the Prince. But when the door was closing behind Master Richard I felt a great sense of unease. Some sorcerers are more honest than others. The one with whom you made the contract—”

“Slade.”

“I’m afraid names and appearances can be quite misleading in the community. Can you tell me—”

Abruptly, Jason jumps to his feet, ignoring the pain. “Wait. Are you saying Slade is _here_? And you just left Dick in there alone with him?”

Alfred gives him an even, composed look. “_If _it is indeed the sorcerer who made the deal with you, the details of your contract are crucial. And if you can tell me anything more about this Slade, it can be very useful when we confront him.”

Jason turns his head to look at Alfred out of the corner of his eyes. “_You_ are going to… what? Fight Slade?”

The old man just smiles. “I am full of surprises, Master Jason. Now, time is a bit of a factor here since, as you said, the prince is alone with this man.”

“Right. He also goes by Deathstroke. He’s given my sire a hard time over the years, constantly challenging him for his territory. He’s the biggest octo-mer I’ve ever seen. He has this… assistant. A giant eel-mer who looks like he’s been through a hundred fights. Oh, Slade only has one eye—”

“Ah, thank you,” Alfred stops him and rises, heading for the door. “Do come along, Master Jason.”

They walk. Mostly. Very quickly down the maze of hallways and corridors that Jason has, in his short time here, come to think of as a sort of home. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up too high. Doesn’t want to let himself believe that Alfred can fix this only for it to blow up in his face.

For the first time since Jason’s been in the palace, the Chamberlain doesn’t knock before entering a room where the Prince is behind a closed door.

The sight makes Jason’s skin crawl and he snarls, surprised that it still sounds just as vicious as it does under water.

Dick is pressed up against the wall, eyes glazed over, while a man who looks way too much like Jason for it to be a coincidence has a hand down his trousers and tries to work them over the swell of Dick’s ass.

The only thing that stops Jason from charging forward when ice grey eyes turn to look at him and that mouth grins like a shark is the hand Alfred places on his shoulder.

“Took you long enough to get here, kid.” That is definitely Slade’s voice coming out from between teeth _just_ too pointed to be human. “Thought we were going to get to the good stuff before you even got here. Would have ruined my going away present for you.”

For half a moment Jason forgets the man is a sorcerer and entertains the notion that, since they’re both human and roughly the same size, he might be able to beat him like this.

“I do believe you’re getting ahead of yourself, _mister Wilson_,” Alfred says pointedly.

The man freezes. Then he stands straighter, seeming to grow several inches in front of their eyes.

“Who’re you?” he snaps, glaring at the old man.

Alfred just smirks. “I’m sure you would love to know. But we have more pressing matters to discuss. Is the Prince a participant in you contract?”

Slade sneers before growling, “No.”

“Then do release him from your thrall.”

The sorcerer’s face twitches. Then he snaps his fingers and Dick is blinking back the haze, looking at the scene around him before glancing down to seen his breeches unlaced and tugged low on his hips.

He lets out a little squeak of embarrassment that would have been adorable under any other circumstances, and starts doing his clothes back up.

Without thinking, Jason rushes forward, desperate to check that Dick is alright. But he’s snagged out of the air by a big, too strong hand wrapped around his throat.

“Not so fast, little fish,” Slade rumbles, squeezing. “Your pretty prince might be protected but you’re still mine.”

“Is he?” Alfred asks, completely calm and seemingly unaffected by the goings on. “Or are you getting ahead of yourself again?”

“Yes,” Slade scowls. “He had seven days. His time is up.”

“Seems like he has some time left, as his tail has not returned.”

“Not enough to meet the terms.”

“Oh I don’t know about that—”

“I do. Even if you knew what they were, which he’s not allowed to say and I won’t tell, and even if you rushed to meet them, there’s still—“

“The Intent. I understand how the contracts work, mister Wilson. Your highness?”

Dick gives his head a little shake, glances at Jason with a worried expression, then looks back to his Chamberlain.

“Would you be so kind as to share with our guest what you were discussing with me on your way to meet with him?”

For the first time since in their admittedly short relationship, Jason sees Dick’s cheeks turn dusty pink and the prince won’t meet his eyes.

“I was—_ahem—_asking what you thought about my proposing to Jason.”

Jason has no idea what that means. It’s like the sentence is missing a handful of words. Proposing what? But judging by the look on Slade’s (_his_) face, it’s enough to save him.

“Now. Your interference is dangerously close to a breach of contract. I suspect the only thing saving you is that I’m confronting you about it and not the person with whom you made the deal. But I would suggest you leave and wait to see if he returns to you at the designated time.”

There is a long moment where no one moves. Dick holds his breath and Jason has no choice but to hold his as Slade squeezes down even harder.

Finally he’s released, allowed to drop to the floor where he collapses in a boneless heap.

“This isn’t over,” Slade snarls.

“No,” Alfred responds, “I daresay it is just beginning.”

* * *

Dick is fuming.

Jason won’t meet his eyes and Dick feels like that’s the least Jason can do. He should be embarrassed. He should be sorry. This is entirely his fault.

But the purpling around the younger man’s throat quickly softens his position, at least a little. He’s still livid.

Finally Alfred pulls him out of the room to “let Jason catch his breath” but Dick knows it’s to speak privately.

“It _is_ his fault, Al,” Dick starts. “I got felt up by an octopus because he didn’t see fit to tell the truth.”

“Perhaps. But perhaps there is more to it than what you’ve seen.”

“Oh come on—”

“You did say you knew he was a mer.”

“Yes but I didn’t know he made a contract with a sorcerer!”

Alfred chuckles at that. “My dear boy, where did you think the legs came from? Mer don’t just spontaneously grow limbs as it suits them.”

Dick frowns. He’d… never really thought about that. But now that he has, there _is_ only one way for that to happen.

“Ok, so maybe I was a little bit of a fool myself—”

“Two young fools in love,” Alfred hums.

They stand in comfortable silence for a moment.

“What’s his deal?” Dick asks tentatively.

Alfred gives him a sad smile. “The sorcerer tricked him. Mer don’t have a cultural equivalent to marriage. He purposefully misled the lad. Allowed him to believe that ‘marry’ and ‘mate’ were synonymous.”

Dick fidgets. “So he has to get married today?”

“He has to marry _you_ by this afternoon. Or he’ll return to the sea.”

“You said… ‘see if he returns to you’…”

“The way he was talking… it would seem Master Jason bartered away his freedom for the chance to walk amongst humans and be with you.”

“I… that’s… that’s a lot of pressure,” Dick gulps.

“You are not obligated to do anything—”

“Obligated? No, you’re right, I’m not. But…” He trails off. Then looks up into Alfred’s eyes. “Do you think it was all an act? Like a… like a seduction? Or do you think he was honest about who he is? I mean, like the kind of person he is.”

Smiling more genuinely now, Alfred puts a hand on Dick’s shoulder. “Master Richard, I don’t believe that boy is capable of ‘seducing’ anyone, even if he was genuinely trying, let alone if it was an act.”

Dick laughs. It’s real but also relieved. He knows he has a tendency to be too trusting. But Alfred has always been a great judge of character. He’s glad to have his own impressions of Jason validated by some one he trusts so implicitly.

“So, your highness,” Alfred says, eyes glinting impishly, “Have you decided?”

As of this morning, Dick had been considering proposing to Jason. But he hadn’t planned to do it _immediately_. He’d just wanted to get a feel for his options, start preparing for it when he decided to do it. He’d had the rough plan of waiting at least until the next full moon, taking Jason out to his favorite secluded spot in the lagoon, and ask him there. But that would have given him _at least_ another month to get a handle on his feelings and make a final decision.

So it’s not ideal. They haven’t known each other very long. Dick is more sure that Jason is someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with than any of his other suitors. But it’s still so new.

Ultimately though, Dick decides, it comes down to whether he loves Jason enough, right now, in _this_ moment, to risk his own future happiness in order to save him.

“You know a lot more about mer than I do, Alfred.”

“Yes sir?”

“If his pod found out he saved my life… they probably wouldn’t have been very happy with him. Right?”

“No, I can’t imagine they would have taken the news very well at all.”

An image of how Jason ended up in the sorcerer’s clutches starts to form. It’s made up of Dick’s assumptions based on the almost nothing human’s know of mer culture. He thinks it’s probably pretty accurate.

But he’ll let Jason tell him. He’ll let Jason teach him about his people and how he ended up so desperate he risked everything for the chance to meet the prince whose life he’d saved.

After all, they have the rest of their lives.


	3. Epilogue

The time comes and goes.

And Slade fumes.

He doesn’t know who the other sorcerer is but the old man cost him both his prizes.

He will find out. And the man will repay him for what he’s lost.

An hour out from the shore, Slade smells _him_ and grins. Finds a rock out in the open sea and waits.

The water is too warm this close to land but the currents are strong and he knows the other mer can smell him too. Knows that he’ll come to him.

Sure enough, after only several minutes, Bruce is floating right in front of him. A young mermaid with a glistening black tail guards the king’s left, while the red head Wintergreen mentioned had tried to accompany Jason swims on his right. There are several others out of sight. He can smell them. But leaving them is Bruce’s way of saying he just wants to talk.

“Where is my son?” The sea king growls without preamble.

“I’m glad you’re here, Bruce,” Slade says pleasantly, sharp teeth on display through his grin. “I needed the reminder.”

The other mer scowls, his great, huge black and yellow tail flicking in agitation. “The reminder of what?”

“Of why I took the contract.”

Bruce snarls, baring his own sharp fangs. “You took a contract _with my son_?”

“Oh yes. And I’ve spent the last several hours very annoyed that he slipped through my fingers.” He pauses, waits for that slight twitch of muscles letting him know that Bruce feels the relief that Slade has no claim on Jason’s life. Then slides off the rock and with one easy pulse is face to face with mer king when he strikes his blow. “But you’ve reminded me that it doesn’t matter, because you’ve still lost your son too.”

Slade watches with delight as Bruce’s gaze hardens and a vein at his temple twitches. “Explain.”

“Your boy wanted to walk. So I gave him legs,” he says, watching as the horror of his words settle over the other mer present. “He’s gone and married some human prince he rescued from drowning. And you will never get to see him again.”

“You’re lying,” Bruce snarls. But Slade can see that he’s desperate. That he knows the octo-mer is telling the truth.

“You’re going to spend the rest of your life wondering what happened to him. If he’s happy. If he’s safe. If he’s _alive_. And you’ll never get any answers.”

Bruce’s face falls and his shoulders slump.

That bone deep, full body look of defeat is everything Slade’s ever wanted.

This is why he took the contract. Nothing is a sure thing. No matter how he rigs the game in his favor, there’s always the chance the other being could succeed. Slade’s number one rule is not to gamble if he’s not prepared to lose.

But Jason had been a win-win scenario. Yes, it would have been nice to have Bruce’s pretty son enslaved. Even nicer if he’d managed to grab the prince too. But even if Jason succeeded, Slade still came out ahead. Bruce’s heart is broken. He’ll never be the same again, the poor, unfortunate soul.

And that gives Slade leverage. Leverage he can use to one day approach Bruce with a too-good-to-refuse contract.

Slade grins like a shark as he swims away.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Unfortunate Dive](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20931542) by [Airdanteine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airdanteine/pseuds/Airdanteine)


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